The legacy of Dick and Mary Jo Stanley, two of Muscatine’s most prominent and generous citizens, will be celebrated with a series of events on May 20, 2018. Local organizers are hoping to showcase the wide ranging impact of the Stanleys, who passed away late last year, on Muscatine, the state, and the world.

Beginning in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, Iowa State University (ISU) made it a priority to commission and paint portraits. The commemoration of presidents, deans, accomplished faculty and heralded alumni strove to honor the college’s heritage and legacies. This tradition continues today with the active commissioning of portraits by departments and colleges all across ISU and is celebrated through this statewide touring exhibition Faces of Iowa State.

National Inspire Your Heart with Art Day is a day to reflect on how art affects your heart. Art, in all of its forms, has the power to move us, and to inspire our hearts. Of all the different kinds of art created in the world, those that move us to tears or cause us to burst out in laughter remain with us for a lifetime.

Living Proof Exhibit grew out of a friendship between two women who used art as therapy in coping with a diagnosis of breast cancer. The two women curated their first exhibit at Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport in 2010. Since that time, Living Proof Exhibit has partnered with the Figge Art Museum, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, UnityPoint Health-Trinity Cancer Center, and the Peoria Public Library to display works of art by cancer patients and survivors.